Afterwards
That very last night at my parents’ house
it was as though a blackbird waited
on the fence and, watching, saw my tears,
flew down, pecked into the crack, opening,
its sharp yellow beak homing straight to the heart.
It drew blood, pulled as if at a worm,
leant back, bracing, ready to gulp down
as a corner broke free,
a piece of me taken for ever.
A silence followed, as sudden
as the quiet of a solar eclipse.
Early next day, eyes raw from lack of sleep,
I watched the cars pull up outside the gate,
heard a faint chorus of birdsong begin.
Nicky Phillips lives in Hertfordshire. Her poems have been published in magazines and online. In 2017 one was nominated for Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. Her pamphlet Jam in Aisle 3 was published by Dempsey & Windle in 2018.